Brandt and Germany set off for Russia
The Germany squad flew out to Russia from Frankfurt Airport on flight LH2018 on Tuesday four days ahead of the first World Cup group match against Mexico (17 June, 17.00 CET).
After Germany coach Joachim Löw gave his players a couple of days off after Friday's final pre-tournament friendly against Saudi Arabia (2-1) at the BayArena, the 'Mannschaft' met up at the DFB headquarters in Frankfurt. Julian Brandt and Co. all set off from there. The team are due to land in Moscow in the early evening before heading off to the Germany HQ in Vatutinki some 40 kilometres south-west of the Russian capital. The Werkself defender Tin Jedvaj has been in Russia with the Croatia squad since Monday. Their first group match is on Saturday (16 June, 21.00 CET) against Nigeria.
25th anniversary of DFB Cup win
Bayer 04 won the DFB Cup for the first time in the club's history 25 years ago today. The Werkself beat the Hertha Berlin Reserves 1-0 in front of 76,391 fans at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin thanks to a header from Ulf Kirsten. To celebrate the occasion, the club has organised an event this Tuesday evening (12 June) at the fitting time of 19.04 CET for fans and former players from the cup winning team at the 19 zero four Lounge in the West Stand at the BayArena. Former members of the squad from 1993 attending include players Rüdiger Vollborn, Andreas Thom, Christian Wörns, Markus Happe and Markus von Ahlen plus coach Dragoslav Stepanovic.
Leon Bailey Just misses out on 'golden K'
Thanks to his impressive performances last season, Leon Bailey was almost able to look forward to another award. In a survey held by the kicker sports magazine, where 70,000 readers voted for the 'Golden K', the Werkself number nine came third with 8.7% behind James Rodruigez (15.7 %) and Thomas Müller (9.2 %) of the German champions Bayern Munich.
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